Jake, Randy and Jack:
Thanks for your responses!
"Mom" has not had much luck with the "chain stores" because of a law in NH (reasonable, I'm sure) that does not allow one to set themselves up as a non-profit charity if there is only a single recipient....i.e., a charity for Autism is fine, a charity to help Justin's Autism is not. And the big chains understandably don't make donations to persons who are not registered as non-profit. It's been the local lumber and building material suppliers, and the local contractors who have graciously donated. The newspaper story has generated good…ummm….press(!) and I produced a CD-ROM for her and several hundred discs that have been mailed out. She's gotten good support in getting the building built (I hope anyway, we're having a pretty good snowstorm here today and the contractor that is donating his company and construction team leaves for the season on Monday for Florida), but it's on to Phase II (interior and eqpt.) where she's hitting some walls.
She has had contacts with reps from equipment manufacturers who have all basically told her "we don't do donations or we would have to do them all the time"…. So no-luck with any of the manufacturers.
There are a few local charities that are doing some small stuff…..one local telethon is going to donate one hour to Justin. It just seems though, that between the hurricanes and now the Holidays, many companies are already tapped out. There is interest from the local Lion's Club, Rotary, some churches, etc… as well, but nothing concrete as of yet.
Thanks again for your input, though! Any and all suggestions are welcome!
